By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim The High Court of Australia has recently handed down an important judgment which makes clear that NSW police officers do not have the power to arrest individuals without a warrant if, at the time of the arrest, the officer has no clear intention of charging them with a particular… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim At around 2.30 am on 3 October 2008, police pulled over Dwayne Schirmer, who was driving a red Nissan Exa along the Midlands Highway near Glen Innes. After blowing negative on a breathalyser test, Schirmer admitted that he had a small amount of cannabis in the glovebox. The officers… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Daughter of former prime minister Bob Hawke, Rosslyn Dillon has recently lodged a $4 million legal claim on her late father’s estate. In the affidavit she’s submitted to the NSW Supreme Court, Ms Dillon details the basis for the claim, which involves a rape allegation coverup. The future prime… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim A mother living in North Strathfield held her six-month-old baby’s head under the water in a bathtub on 18 November 2010, until the child stopped breathing. The woman then called triple zero to report that her daughter had fallen from her bath seat and drowned. Despite the operator pleading… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On 5 October last year, NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller commenced civil proceedings in the NSW Supreme Court seeking to have serious crime prevention orders (SCP0s) imposed upon alleged Rebel motorcycle gang members Damien Charles Vella, Johnny Lee Vella, and Michael Fetui. The orders sought to restrain and prohibit… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim With the advent of smartphones, members of the public have had the ability to film officers of the law as they go about their duties. And on the occasions that citizens capture them behaving in a questionable manner, these video clips invariably end up being shared on social media… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim As Keith Saunders was walking down a street in Surry Hills on 27 February 2016, he spat in the face of a baby being pushed along in a pram by her grandmother. The man spat a sizeable amount of phlegm into the 3-month-old infants’ face, for apparently no reason…. Read more »
By Amy Sarcevic and Ugur Nedim As children, many of us heard the fable about the boy who cried wolf. For most of us, the story did its job and we learned never to make false assertions, for fear of being ignored the next time we needed someone to listen. But somewhere along the way,… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim The 2006 NSW Ombudsman report into the laws regarding the use of drug detection dogs by NSW police remains the most comprehensive study into this aspect of policing that’s ever been undertaken in this state. The statutory review delved into the effectiveness of laws governing the warrantless use of… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim “Go for it. There is nothing in here,” was the response Troy Leonard gave to Constable Geoffrey Barnes, when he asked to search the man’s car on the Sturt Highway in April 2000. Barnes had pulled Leonard over to breathalyse him and remarked that the road was notorious for… Read more »
